Cases of five stillborn babies in the;Mother Child Hospital at Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital here on Sunday have raised brows over the functioning of the hospital.

Cases of five stillborn babies in the;Mother Child Hospital at Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital here on Sunday have raised brows over the functioning of the hospital.

It was only the second day of working in the hospital when four deaths were reported in a single day.

Lord Mahavira civil hospital conducts more than 500 deliveries in a month and the IUD cases (death of newborn during deliveries) count to only 13 or 14 per month.

Angry over the death of newborns during deliveries, the parents staged a protest in the hospital and alleged negligence by the doctor and hospital and stated that deaths happened because staff went for the normal deliveries even when there was need of the caesarean delivery.

Sarabjeet Kaur of Mangat, Vandana of Ayali Kalan, Reena of Chaunta village and Jaswinder Kaur of Katani Kalan were brought for deliveries on Sunday at the Mother Child Hospital. The babies of all these women were still born following various complications. Another newborn died in late evening, when the baby of Manjeet Kaur from Detewal village died during caesarean operation.

Alleging negligence by doctors, Harjit Singh, husband of Vandana, said, “The case was complicated, thus we asked for a caesarean but the staff was adamant for the normal delivery and the child got stuck, leading to its death.”

An eyewitness said a woman was brought to hospital in the afternoon, she was sitting on the floor when bleeding started and only then the staff took her to operation theatre.

Dr Alka Mitta, who was on duty in the hospital for the day, declined any negligence. She said the patients were brought in complicated situations. She said Reena was brought at 11 am when the delivery process had already started and the child passed the urine in the womb only. In other case, Jaswinder Kaur was brought at 3.25 in the morning but there was no heartbeat of the child.

Sarabjeet Kaur’s uterus was dried when she was brought to hospital. In Vandana’s case, the pregnancy had exceeded the time that caused complications.

After getting the information, civil surgeon Dr Subhash Batta reached the hospital in the evening. He confirmed four deaths during deliveries saying all deaths happened during normal deliveries that were conducted by the nurses. He didn’t confirm the fifth death till the filing of this report.Meanwhile, health minister Surjit Kumar Jyani instructed the civil surgeon to conduct an inquiry and take strict action against those found guilty.

It was only second day of working in the hospital, when the five deaths were reported in a single day. The Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital conducts more than 500 deliveries in a month and death of newborn during deliveries count to only 13 or 14 per month.

Deputy Commissioner Rajat Agarwal also reached the hospital in the evening.